Character Exercise

Looking at pictures and watching people can be a goldmine for character building. As a playwright, one of the most important tasks you will have to accomplish is creating interesting characters. Boring characters make for boring plays, so it's helpful to have a few ideas about character design before jumping into the pool of monologues, scenes, and plays.

Task #1: Brainstorming Characters:

IN YOUR JOURNAL, NOTEBOOK, or on PAPER, please complete the following exercise. DO NOT TURN THIS IN. Instead, you will use it for our first writing assignment.

Please take a look at the photos of people below. For each photo, give the person a name, age or age range, and 1-sentence physical description. Follow this up with a 1-sentence goal or urgent desire.

For example:

GEORGETTE MINSKY, female, age 25-30. Georgette always wears a baseball glove (even to church) and too much lipstick. She wants to witness a miracle first hand or at least win her minor-league softball team's championship trophy in memory of her dead grandma.

Create a character for any 10 of these pictures (you may do all of them, if you'd like):

Once you have completed this exercise, please begin reading Talking With by Jane Martin. See post below for homework details.

Welcome Back!

Welcome back, class of 2013. I hope you all had a restful and enjoyable summer. But here we are again. This year is partly devoted to writing scripts (both theatrical and for the screen). What you learn here can help you improve your fiction "dialogue" skills, as well as make you a better psychologist (dealing with people in crisis), while honing your writer's craft.

Today, after reviewing the course criteria and updating your computer passwords, we will get started on a couple assignments to begin this course.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION:

Check this blog each class period for agendas, deadlines, educational information, advice, and a whole lot of links to enhance your education. All you have to do is read and click. You are responsible for reading and interacting with the material I post on the blog.

If you're absent or missed something in class, please check the blog to get caught up. As stated above, each new class period includes a new post. If you have a question about an assignment and are too embarrassed to speak to me in public (or you have a question that you think you will forget to ask), feel free to use the comment section.

New on our link page is a link to our Creative Writing Forum. You will be expected to use the forum to discuss the major reading and thematic topics in this course. Electronic forums save paper. You are keeping the world green by posting responses and reflections there.

Today, let's begin playwriting with a character building exercise. You will need a notebook or paper to jot down some character notes. See post above this one for specific details.

When you have completed your writing, please get together with a friend (or two) and begin reading our first play: Talking With by Jane Martin. More about this play will be detailed next class. Please complete your reading of the play script by Wednesday, September 7.

HOMEWORK: Read Talking With by Jane Martin. Complete character brainstorm exercise.

End of Course

Please hand in your film project if you have not completed this yet. Today is the last day to do so.

Please feel free to post a comment about what you liked and didn't like in this course.

Have a good finals week and a productive and safe summer!

Film Project (late) & Dogme '95

Please turn in all work today as we close our course. Film projects should be exported to your network file, then copied as a mv4 to my jump drive so that I can prepare these for screening next class (and for our party).

Today, please turn in your homework on Dogme '95. Here's an interesting film site: Green Cine

A few dogme '95 influenced films:

The Celebration (1998)
The Idiots and part 1 of the Idiots
The King is Alive
The Blair Witch Project (trailer)
Cloverfield (trailer)

A few films that limit or use rules that restrict:
Rope (Alfred Hitchcock) This film is made of long continuous shots.
Lifeboat (there is only one setting for the entire film--can you guess which one it is?)
Russian Ark One continuous shot is used for the ENTIRE film.

If you are planning to enter your films (and you should) to the Teen Film Festival, please fill out the appropriate form in the front of the class and hand this to me by the end of the class period.

Go here. Watch some films.

HOMEWORK: None.

Film Project (Due Today)

Your film projects are due today. Remember that you have to EXPORT the file first (and this takes quite a bit of time, so please be aware so that you don't work to the last minute today and then expect to turn the film in). Late projects will count as a lower grade, but as long as you turn in your work you cannot get lower than a "C" grade.

The Rochester Teen Film Festival deadline is here. Any film you are submitting should be copied as a MV4 file and given to me on a flash drive (you'll get these back...I just need the file) so that I can burn a DVD for Mr. Bailey. There is a form you need to fill out in the front of the class if you are submitting your film project. I'll give extra credit to anyone who does this.

HOMEWORK: Please read the article Dogme '95 and write a short 3-5 reflective paragraph (to turn in next class) in which you compare the style of filmmaking described here with your own project. What freedoms does Dogme '95 allow a filmmaker? How does this affect the film industry/culture as a whole? What does this mean to you as a young filmmaker?

Film Project (deadline looming)

Your film projects are due at the end of next class. Please use this time to complete them.

Also, if you are planning on submitting a film to the Rochester Teen Film Festival, please send me the movie file and fill out one of the forms (found at the front of the room).

HOMEWORK: Prepare and complete your film.

Film Project & News

Just a reminder that your film projects are due Tuesday, June 7.

Coffeehouse is scheduled for June 6 at 7:00 (extra credit if you go and read)

West Side Story is June 2. Please gather in the Commons at 6:45. We will then walk over to the Auditorium Theater.